An attorney for the utility company lobbyist identified in media reports as ex-Assemblyman Mike Duvall's mistress issued a statement today saying that the woman is exploring legal remedies for the personal and professional damages caused by allegations that she had an affair with the former lawmaker.
Duvall, who is married, resigned in September after a recording surfaced in which he is heard bragging about having sex with two women. Sempra Energy lobbyist Heidi Dejong Barsuglia, whose employer said she denied having an affair, was identified in media reports and in a complaint to the Fair Political Practices Commission as one of the women referred to in the tape. Duvall has also since said his resignation was not an admission that he had an affair, but a reflection of "inappropriate storytelling."
Barsuglia said in the statement that the ordeal has been "a professional and personal nightmare."
"I did nothing whatsoever illegal or unethical with former Assemblyman Duvall or anyone else. What is shocking to me and my family is that anyone would have taken seriously the statements of someone boasting about his alleged exploits or even believed for a moment that they were true," she said in the statement.
The statement came shortly following an announcement that the U.S. Attorney's Office would not file charges in connection with the comments. The California Attorney General's Office and the Fair Political Practices Commission also said there was not sufficient evidence to investigate whether any laws were broken by the actions described in the tapes.
Read more at SacBee.com
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